Principle and interest

the long version

Principle and Interest considers the role of debt in the early Republic, and looks at Jefferson's vision of a transformed politics in which the debts of the past would no longer burden future generations. Taking Jefferson's famous letter to James Madison on the rights of the living generation as the central exposition of Jefferson's political vision, Sloan explores in detail the events of 1789-90, when Jefferson first articulated that vision and then found himself consenting to Hamilton's plans for the national debt - a decision whose consequences would haunt Jefferson until the day he died. For all students and scholars of the early American Republic, Principle and Interest promises to be a groundbreaking and essential work.